The Little Tales Of Smethers And Other Stories is an unjustly forgotten collection of twenty-six mystery and detective short stories by Dunsany, including the much-anthologized mystery story "The Two Bottles Of Relish", with its neat and devastating one-sentence solution at the end.

It was first published in hardcover in London by Jarrolds in October, 1952. The dust jacket art was by Val Biro (1921-2014), who illustrated around 3000 dust wrappers over the course of his long career.

Nominated by Ellery Queen in his book Queen's Quorum as an ‘unequivocal keystone’ in the history of crime writing, this quirky collection is a book that lovers of detective stories and tales of the unexpected will enjoy.

Some of the stories are macabre, others have a lighter and more amusing touch, but each one stimulates the imagination and reveals the acknowledged master of the short story at his very best.

The first nine stories feature Smethers, a travelling salesman for Numnumo, a company which made a relish for meats and savouries. He shares a flat with an Oxford graduate called Linley, who fancies himself as a detective and to whom Scotland Yard is inclined to turn if they encounter a particularly challenging mystery.

Several stories pit the duo against the master criminal Steeger, a serial killer and spy for the Germans during World War II, who is sort of the Moriarty to Smethers's and Linley's Holmes and Watson. Steeger manages to elude Scotland Yard and the hangman until his final comeuppance in the story "Once Too Often."

The only story with a fantasy element is the final one "The Shield Of Athene," which has been described as being "enjoyably Machen-like, with perhaps a flourish of M. P. Shiel."

Ellery Queen in Queen's Quorum: "The book is a treasure-trove-----no less than 26 tales of crime and detection, all illumined by Lord Dunsany's charm and wit, and his individualistic style."